The Wayne State University administration plans to ask for a tuition increase of about 9 percent for the upcoming school year, a source told the Free Press this afternoon.

The source, who is close to the budget negotiations, spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier today, WSU President Allan Gilmour told the Detroit Free Press Editorial Board that he will ask the Board of Governors for a major tuition increase on Wednesday. Gilmour declined to say what the rate would be but said it would "well higher" than last year's 3.88% hike.

“We considered tuition increases into the double digits,” Gilmour said. “We thought if we are going to be shot for high tuition increases we might as well be shot once and not have to do it again next year.”

He also said the university will increase its financial aid budget significantly.

The Board of Governors, which has the final say on the increase, meets at 11 a.m. on campus for a finance committee meeting. It will vote on the budget at its 3 p.m. regular meeting.

“That’s horrible,” said WSU junior Marquis Williams, 23, of Detroit, while walking on campus this morning. “I want to know how much that hike is going to be. I can’t afford to pay more. I’m going to have to take more loans.”

The move is needed because the university's “financial model is totally out of sync,” Gilmour said.

Gilmour, who is leaving the school at the end of July, said when he came to WSU three years ago, “it was clear we had efficiency and effectiveness” issues.

He hired consultants to review the organization and said he’s worked to increase the efficiency of the Detroit school and has been aggressive in budgeting, saying this year he budgeted no increase in purchasing costs, as one example.

But, he said, the state’s switch to a performance metric funding system has hurt Wayne State, which last year received the lowest amount of performance funding and is on pace to do so again this year.

The performance funding looks at issues such as the six-year graduation rate, which at WSU is just under 30%. Gilmour said that number needs to be raised, but is misleading. He said the university’s 10-year graduation rate is much closer to 50%. He credited that difference to WSU attracting a sizable number of students who are working and going to school.

He wants to increase spending on advisers and other aides to help students graduate.

"Our task is to get more people to graduate," he told the Free Press’ editorial board.

He also said the university needs to increase its spending on research, which is largely federally funded through grants. However many of those grant dollars are drying up.

To accomplish that, the university will need more income coming in from students.

Raising the tuition over 3.75% will pull WSU out of performance funding from the state. It could also mean incurring the wrath of Republicans in Lansing, with whom WSU has feuded in the last several years over several issues.

"I think there’s a risk (of having the Republicans cut more funding) but I don’t see we have a choice," Gilmour said.

The University of Michigan has adopted the lowest tuition increase for next year in the state at 1.1%. The rest of the state’s universities have all been under a 3.75% cap set by the state Legislature.

Currently, tuition and fees for 24 credit hours over two semesters cost $8,236 next year for undergraduate. The Midtown Detroit school has about 29,000 students, including some 10,000 graduate students, and an annual general fund budget of $567 million.